Texas Replaces Oklahoma as World’s Most Attractive Oil and Gas Investment Site

Oklahoma is no longer the most attractive area in the world for oil and gas investment, according to the Fraser Institute’s 11th annual global survey of petroleum industry executives.

Instead, the honor belongs to Texas but Oklahoma ranks second worldwide according to the Canadian public policy think-tank.

Authors Ashley Stedman and Kenneth P. Green based their report on the response of 333 executives who provided data to evaluate 97 oil and gas jurisdictions that hold 52 percent of the proved global oil and gas reserves.

“Texas and Oklahoma have, for years, been seen as the most attractive jurisdictions in the world for oil and gas investors — proof that sound regulatory policies and stable environmental protections help attract scarce investment dollars even when commodity prices are down,” said Green, Fraser’s senior director of natural resource studies and co-author of the 2017 Global Petroleum Survey.

U.S. states comprised six of the top 10 global jurisdictions for investment: Texas (1st), Oklahoma (2nd), North Dakota (3rd), West Virginia (5th), Kansas (6th) and Wyoming (9th).

The 10 least attractive jurisdictions in order are Yemen, France, Cambodia, California, Indonesia, Ecuador, Iraq, Libya, Bolivia and Venezuela.

But the report also indicated Oklahoma remains number one in the group of 39 jurisdictions with medium-sized reserves. It is followed by North Dakota, Newfoundland and Labrador, West Virginia, Norway, Wyoming, Norway, North Sea, United Kingdom, North Sea Offshore, Arkansas and the Netherlands.

“Our analysis of the 2017 petroleum survey results indicates that the extent of negative sentiment regarding key factors driving petroleum investment decisions has increased in many of the world’s regions,” wrote the authors. “The United States Continues to remain as the most attractive region for investment, followed by Europe.”